Featured courses are new courses and ones you may have missed that are recommended by major departments and programs. Below is the list of the featured courses offered in Spring 2018. You may filter by a course tag:

INTRODUCTION TO AFRICANA STUDIESMICHAEL HANCHARD
The aim of this course is to provide an interdisciplinary examination of the complex array of African American and other African Diaspora social practices and experiences. This class will focus on both classic texts and modern works that provide an introduction to the dynamics of African American and African Diaspora thought and practice. Topics include: What is Africana Studies?; The History Before 1492; Creating the African Diaspora After 1500; The Challenge of Freedom; Race, Gender and Class in the 20th Century; From Black Studies to Africana Studies: The Future of Africana Studies.
AFRC 001 001 | MW0200PM-0330PMANNENBERG SCHOOL111Fulfills: Humanities & Social Science SectorTags: Fulfills a College Requirement

CONFLCT GEOGRAPHIES IN AFRICA (& PHILA):SPACES OF WAR, MEMORY & RESISTANCEDELIA WENDEL
This course will primarily consider case studies in Africa with a view to drawing comparisons with conflict geographies here at home (in Philadelphia or where you consider home to be). Conflicts on the African continent are some of the least well understood by lay publics; often characterized as the result of pre-modern tribalism and a naturalized consequence of state dysfunction or resource scarcity. In this course, we will demystify the notion that war is inevitable or that some cultures are naturally prone to conflict. We will do so by examining some of the underlying challenges to consensus and peace in cities and countries in Africa, drawing connection to conditions, both historic and contemporary, that exist closer to home. After all-and as recent conflict conflict geographies such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, Charlottesville Rally, and Women's March remind us-spaces and communities in in the United States are rife with struggle and contestation. Throughout the semester, we will ask: How do individuals experience conflict? What roles do spaces have in structuring oppression, activating conflicts, resisting power, and building peace? How is the study of conflict-understood as both routine contestation and violent confrontation-informed by research on built and natural environments? This is a course that will require the active participation of every individual-in completing all readings, preparing questions and comments, and debating issues with respect and openness. There are no other prerequisites for this course, nor preferred disciplinary concentrations. We will draw from our collective experiences (academic and and personal) to discuss research in diverse fields, including Anthropology, Conflict and Peace Studies, Geography, Political Ecology, and Urban Studies.
AFRC 328 401 | M0200PM-0500PMJAFFE BUILDINGB17Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

COLONIAL OBJECTS, COMMODITIES, BODIES: ARCH OF LATIN AMERICA SINCE 1492DOUGLAS SMIT
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, unleashing five centuries of conquest and colonialism that continues to influence contemporary Latin America. This course examines the archaeology of the colonial encounter between Spanish/Portuguese and indigenous peoples of the Americas. Students will learn how to incorporate material evidence with archival approaches to colonial history, using archaeology to understand the roles of social groups often overlooked by colonial archives (e.g. indigenous peoples, women, Afro-Latin Americans). In short, this course will be a material history of colonialism from below, focusing on the conflicts and negotiations over material culture, economic systems, religion, and biology. No prior knowledge of archaeology or Latin American history is required. The course readings will balance secondary historical readings with archaeology articles on similar topics, in order to highlight the benefits of a material culture approach to the colonial encounter in Latin America. However, the course will mainly focus on the experiences, responses, and negotiation of conquest and colonization by indigenous societies in Latin American. Regional coverage will include Spanish colonialism in the Caribbean (Taino), Mexico (Aztec), Central America (Mayan), Andean South America (Inka), as well as Portuguese incursions in Brazil. Students will be evaluated on short written responses to readings, a midterm and non-cumulative final exam, and a research paper.
ANTH 277 401 | TR1030AM-1200PMUNIVERSITY MUSEUM419Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

HISTORICAL ECOLOGYCLARK ERICKSON
The relationship between the human beings and the environment is complex, dynamic, and contentious. Historical ecology addresses this relationship over the long term through the physical signatures and patterns of past human activity that are embedded in landscape. In some preindustrial cases, humans caused environmental degradation and societal collapse. In other situations, people transformed, created, and managed resources for sustainable lifeways over centuries and increased biodiversity. This seminar will examine the Myth of the Ecologically Noble Savage, the Myth of the Pristine Environment, domestication of landscape, biocultural diversity, the alliance between native peoples and Green Politics, and the contribution of past societies to appropriate technology, sustainable development, and biodiversity through the historical, ethnographic, and archaeological record.
ANTH 331 301 | TR0300PM-0430PMUNIVERSITY MUSEUM330Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

GOTHIC ARCH: GOLD+STONESARAH GUERIN
Key monuments of the Middle Ages, the Gothic cathedrals of Western Europe present a synthesis of the theological, economic, and social developments of the twelfth through fourteenth centuries. A harmonious marriage between technology and aesthetics, of political power and imagination, these immense and ingenious structures are as famous for their sculptural programs as they are for the liturgies that animated their spaces. Students will also be introduced to local uses of Gothic in Philadelphia architecture to better understand the lived experiences of these built manifestations of transcendence.
ARTH 245 401 | TR1030AM-1200PMJAFFE BUILDING104Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

ART NOWKAJA SILVERMAN
One of the most striking features of today's art world is the conspicuous place occupied in it by the photographic image. Large-scale color photographs and time-based installations in projections are everywhere. Looking back, we can see that much of the art making of the past 60 years has also been defined by this medium, regardless of the form it takes. Photographic images have inspired countless paintings, appeared in combines and installations, morphed into sculptures, drawings and performances, and served both as the object and the vehicle of institutional critique. They are also an increasinglyimportant exhibition site: where most of us go to see earthworks, happenings and body-art. This course is a three-part exploration of our photographic present.
ARTH 294 401 | MW1100AM-1200PMSTITELER HALLB26Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

ASIAN AMERICAN FOODFARIHA KHAN
You are what you eat. Asian American Food explores the history, politics, and ethnic identity of food through a cultural lens. Growing food, eating, and sharing meals serve as intimate expressions of self and community. By examining the production and consumption of food, the course investigates the ways that Asian Americans navigate traditions, gender norms, religious dietary laws, food habits, and employment as they create lives in the United States. The course overviews the history of Asian American foodways, but has a particular focus on Philadelphia's Asian American communities.
ASAM 180 401 | TR1200PM-0130PMMCNEIL BUILDING285Fulfills: Cultural Diversity in the U.S.Tags: Fulfills a College Requirement | Various Audiences

CHEM OF THE ENVIRONMENTMARSHA LESTER ERIC SCHELTER
The course aims to teach chemical content and principles in the context of significant environmental issues. Topics to be covered include: composition of the atmosphere; protecting the ozone layer; chemistry of global warming; traditional hydrocarbon fuels and energy utilization; water supply, its contaminants, and waste water treatment; acid rain; nuclear energy; and new energy sources. Students will develop critical thinking ability, competence to better assess risks and benefits, and skills that will lead them to be able to make informed decisions about technology-based matters.
CHEM 012 001 | TR1030AM-1200PMCHEMISTRY BUILDINGB13Fulfills: Physical World SectorQuantitative Data AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement

Great Books of Greece and RomeJOSEPH FARRELL JR
The literature of ancient Greece and Rome has been foundational for the national literatures of Europe and the Americas, and in the modern period it remains one of the most influential and widely read world literatures. This course introduces many of the most representative works that define the Greek and Roman canon from Homer to Augustine, along with the most characteristic issues that they examine. In the process, students will become familiar not only with the works themselves, but with the idea of a literary canon consisting of "great books," and will consider differing perspectives both on that idea and those of what constitutes a "foundational" or a "classical" literature, of literary influence, and of a community or culture defined in part by such a literature.
CLST 143 301 | TR1030AM-1200PMCLAUDIA COHEN HALL203Fulfills: Arts & Letters SectorTags: Various Audiences

PERICLEAN ATHENSSHEILA MURNAGHAN
Athens in the 5th Century BCE is often viewed as a high point of human civilization. We will assess this claim by looking at the period's cultural achievements (in such areas as drama, architecture, and oratory) within their social and political contexts. Topics for discussion include: the structure and workings of the Athenian democracy; the interplay between pro-democratic and anti-democratic positions in Athenian political life; the connections between democracy and imperialism; conceptions of citizenship and relations between citizens and non-citizens (women, slaves, and resident foreigners); the role of the law courts in both dispute resolution and elite competition; sexual politics; and the civic significance of religious ritual.
CLST 217 401 | MW0330PM-0500PMCLAUDIA COHEN HALL237Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

APPROACHES LITERARY STD: AFRO-ENCOUNTERS: DIASPORA AND THE BLACK IMAGINATIONAUGUSTA IRELE
COML 002.402 AFRO-ENCOUNTERS: DIASPORA AND BLACK
IMAGINATION
COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE CURRICULUM
MW 3:30-5:00 IRELE
CROSS LISTED: AFRC 003
What does it mean to be African? What, in particular, does it mean to be “of Africa”, for people who may have never been to the continent? How does diasporic African identity relate to the identity of Africans living in the continent? In this course we will explore how Black American and Caribbean writers and filmmakers from both sides of the diaspora have used travel and immigrant narratives to call attention to affinities and differences in identification and experience. We will grapple with a series of questions about African diasporic identity. How do African authors regard members of the Diaspora through their work? How has identification with the Diaspora transformed through literature and film over time? This course engages with music, film, and literature to explore the role that Africa has played in the diasporic imaginary. Students will interact with work from Langston Hughes, Aimé Césaire, Lorraine Hansberry, Jamaica Kincaid, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie along with films and contemporary music. Grading will be based primarily on oral presentations. The course is open to all students including those with no previous experience of literature.
COML 002 402 | MW0200PM-0330PM3401 WALNUT STREET328AFulfills: (none) Tags: Communication Within the Curriculum

WORLD LITERATURECORY KNUDSON KAUSHIK RAMU
How do we think of the world as such? Globalizing economic paradigms encourage one model that, while it connects distant regions with the ease of a finger-tap, also homogenizes the world, manufacturing patterns of sameness behind simulations of diversity. Our current world-political situation encourages another model, in which fundamental differences are held to warrant the consolidation of borders between Us and Them, "our world" and "theirs." This course begins with the proposal that there are other ways to encounter the world, that are politically compelling, ethically important, and personally enriching--and that the study of literature can help tease out these new paths. Through the idea of World Literature, this course introduces students to the appreciation and critical analysis of literary texts, with the aim of navigating calls for universality or particularity (and perhaps both) in fiction and film. "World literature" here refers not merely to the usual definition of "books written in places other than the US and Europe, "but any form of cultural production that explores and pushes at the limits of a particular world, that steps between and beyond worlds, or that heralds the coming of new worlds still within us, waiting to be born. And though, as we read and discuss our texts, we will glide about in space and time from the inner landscape of a private mind to the reaches of the farthest galaxies, knowledge of languages other than English will not be required, and neither will any prior familiary with the literary humanities. In the company of drunken kings, botanical witches, ambisexual alien lifeforms, and storytellers who've lost their voice, we will reflect on, and collectively navigate, our encounters with the faraway and the familiar--and thus train to think through the challenges of concepts such as translation, narrative, and ideology. Texts include Kazuo Ishiguro, Ursula K. LeGuin, Salman Rushdie, Werner Herzog, Jamaica Kincaid, Russell Hoban, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Arundhathi Roy, and Abbas Kiarostami.
COML 191 401 | MW0330PM-0500PMFISHER-BENNETT HALL138Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

PEACE COMMUNICATIONEMILE BRUNEAU
When 'me' and 'you' becomes 'us' and 'them', a suite of psychological processes are amplified or come online. In this course, we will examine the forces that drive people to engage in intergroup conflict through the lenses of evolutionary biology and psychology, and then examine the effectiveness of communications-based interventions at easing conflict. In the first part of the course, we will learn about the theoretical work on intergroup psychology; in the second part, we will examine the specific processes that drive conflict (e.g., stereotypes, prejudice, dehumanization) and how they are measured using both explicit self-report and implicit measures e.g., physiology, neuroimaging); in the third part, we will explore the interventions that have been demonstrated to work (and fail) to decrease intergroup conflict. No prior experience in psychology or neuroscience is required.
COMM 311 001 | MWF1000AM-1100AMANNENBERG SCHOOL108Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

INTERNET VS DEMOCRACYYPHTACH LELKES
At the turn of the 21st century, many claimed that the internet would make the world a more democratic place. Have these prophecies born out? We examine the effects the internet has had on democracy, looking at research that examines whether, for instance, the internet has increased or decreased inequality, polarization, and political participation. In addition to reading and discussing empirical literature, we will also test many of the theories in this course through hands-on workshops in data science.
COMM 441 301 | W0330PM-0630PMANNENBERG SCHOOL225Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

STAT FOR THE SOC SCI IIAURELIE OUSS
In this course, students learn to conduct quantitative data analyses for social sciences, with an emphasis on identifying causal relationships in data. Many social science analyses aim to answer causal questions: Do longer prison sentences reduce crime? Do tougher gun laws reduce homicides and suicides? Can summer jobs help keep youth safe? Students will learn about research designs and data analysis methods to answer these kinds of questions, and especially to learn to implement them in practice. The goal of this class is to help students conduct their own analyses, and to become critical readers of statistical analyses, both in social science publication and in the public discourse. The focus will be on what to compute and how to interpret the results. The emphasis is on the intelligent use of statistics. This is not a math course, or a course in mathematical statistics. We will be using R, an open-source programming language.
CRIM 251 001 | TR0300PM-0430PMMCNEIL BUILDING167-8Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Eastern EuropeKRISTEN GHODSEE
The region of Central and Eastern Europe is a fascinating place to examine questions of gender and sexuality in a non-US context. Stretching from Montenegro on the Adriatic Sea to Estonia on the Baltic, these diverse countries are now mostly members of the European Union and NATO and share common 20th century experiments with various forms of state socialism. Through a combination of scholarly articles and literary fiction, this course will examine the changing status of women during and after the fall of communism, shifting constructions of masculinity, and the emergence of LGBT movements and communities in the post-socialist space. Specific topics will include: the woman question before 1989; gender and emerging nationalisms; neoliberal precarity, visual representations in television and film; social movements and radical politics; work; spirituality; and philosophical investigations into the culturally constructed concepts of "freedom" and "human rights" in post-authoritarian states. All readings and assignments are in English.
EEUR 157 401 | T0130PM-0430PMLERNER CENTER (MUSIC BUILDING102Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

STUDY OF AN AUTHOR: SHAKESPEAREZACHARY LESSER
This course introduces students to literary study through the works of a single author--often Shakespeare, but other versions will feature writers like Jane Austen, Geoffrey Chaucer, Herman Melville, and August Wilson. Readings an individual author across his or her entire career offers students the rare opportunity to examine works from several critical perspectives in a single course. What is the author's relation to his or her time? How do our author's works help us to understand literary history more generally? And how might be understand our author's legacy through performance, tributes, adaptations, or sequels? Exposing students to a range of approaches and assignments, this course is an ideal introduction to literary study for those students wishing to take an English course but not necessarily intending to major. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.
ENGL 101 001 | MW1100AM-1200PMFISHER-BENNETT HALL401Fulfills: Arts & Letters SectorTags: Fulfills a College Requirement

CREATIV WRITG & WORLD: WRITING ACROSS BORDERSRONALD SILLIMAN
A creative writing workshop devoted to writing in and across various social, political, geographical, and historical contexts. Offerings may include Writing Toward Diaspora, Writing the City, Writing and the Environment, or other topics and themes. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of current offerings.
Spring 2018 Course Description:
Butterflies and hurricanes pay no heed to borders, but humans will risk their lives to cross them, build walls to mark them, and kill to defend them. In this writing workshop, we will explore our own relations to borders across a variety of genres. At a moment when the number of displaced persons is projected to rise steeply over the next 30 years, we cannot escape questions of borders and identities in our writing. How do our heritage(s) as citizen, resident, explorer, refugee, immigrant, tourist, trader, slave or raider condition the present and future of writing? How do race, class, and gender enter in? We will examine recent texts that explore these questions as well as look to the future. Authors may include Caroline Bergvall, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Maxine Hong Kingston, Aimé Césaire, C. S. Giscombe, Habib Tengour, M. NourbeSe Philip, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as well as theoretical texts by Césaire, Pierre Joris, Benedict Anderson and Claude Levi-Strauss. Students should expect to keep journals and produce several works in different genres that we will go over closely in class.
ENGL 127 301 | W0200PM-0500PMKELLY WRITERS HOUSE203Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

DIGITAL LIVES OF BOOKSWHITNEY TRETTIEN
What happens when literature goes digital? In this course, we'll explore how texts move through electronic media, tracking them across Facebook and Snapchat, into spam folders and onto our memory drives. Authors are forging new born-digital genres of writing, and we'll experience many of them. We'll read AI-generated poetry, watch a netprov performance, and play text adventure games. As we encounter these new forms of writing, we will consider bigger questions about the history, politics, and agency of books as they "go digital." For instance, how do algorithms amplify racial, gender, or linguistic biases online? And how did servers in the Ukraine become a major site of e-book piracy? Grounding these wide-ranging investigations will be a material history of electronic text technologies, from the development of the ASCII encoding standard and HTML to PDFs and epubs, learned by working hands-on with these formats. Students will leave the course with a concrete grasp of how texts operate in digital spaces, as well a set of critical concepts for understanding the future of reading and writing today.
ENGL 208 301 | MW0200PM-0330PMVAN PELT LIBRARY623Fulfills: (none) Tags: Objects Based Course

INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCEALAIN PLANTE
This course will explore the physical science of the Earth's environment and human interactions with it. Coverage will include the Earth's various environmental systems, various environmental problems, and the direct and indirect causes of these environmental problems.
ENVS 100 001 | TR0900AM-1030AMMEYERSON HALLB1Fulfills: Physical World SectorQuantitative Data AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement

ADVAN FRENCH TRANSLATIONCHANTAL PHILIPPON-DANIEL
This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of translation and is designed to help foster a critical understanding of differences between French and English syntactical and lexical patterns. It will introduce students to theoretical concepts and problems of translation, with the ultimate goal being to improve their ability to communicate in more authentic-sounding French. Students will have the opportunity to practice translation individually and to work with their peers on a variety of projects (advertising, journalistic and literary texts, movie and broadcast news subtitling) and to engage in critique and discussion of others' translations. This course will help students refine their language skills and navigate more proficiently between these cultures and language systems. (Designed for students who already have a solid foundation in French and English grammar)
FREN 325 301 | MW0200PM-0330PMWILLIAMS HALL218Fulfills: Advanced Language CourseTags: Various Audiences

EARTH THROUGH TIMEILEANA PEREZ-RODRIGUEZ
An overview of the origin of Earth, continents, and life - examining the physical, chemical and biological evolution of the Earth through continental movements, changing climates, and evolving life.
GEOL 125 001 | TR1200PM-0130PMSTITELER HALLB6Fulfills: Physical World SectorQuantitative Data AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement

FASCIST CINEMASCATRIONA MACLEOD
Cinema played a crucial role in the cultural life of Nazi Germany and other fascist states. As cinema enthusiasts, Goebbels and Hitler were among the first to realize the important ideological potential of film as a mass medium and saw to it that Germany remained a cinema powerhouse producing more than 1000 films during the Nazi era. In Italy, Mussolini, too, declared cinema "the strongest weapon." This course explores the world of "fascist" cinemas ranging from infamous propaganda pieces such as The Triumph of the Will to popular entertainments such as musicals and melodramas. It examines the strange and mutually defining kinship between fascism more broadly and film. We will consider what elements mobilize and connect the film industries of the Axis Powers: style, genre, the aestheticization of politics, the creation of racialized others. More than seventy years later, fascist cinemas challenge us to grapple with issues of more subtle ideological insinuation than we might think. Weekly screenings with subtitles.
GRMN 257 401 | MW1100AM-1200PMFISHER-BENNETT HALL231Fulfills: Arts & Letters SectorTags: Fulfills a College Requirement

MAKING OF A MODERN WORLDLEE CASSANELLI
How did the world we now live in come to be? Is globalization a recent development or does it have a history of its own? At what point can we say that a world economy emerged and what sort of relations of production and distribution linked it together? When did people start thinking and acting as citizens of nations rather than as subjects of rulers or members of religious or ethnic communities, and what were the consequences? How should we conceptualize the great revolutions (French, American, Russian, Chinese) that would determine the landscapes of modern global politics? This course is designed to help us think about the "making of the modern," not by means of an exhaustive survey but by exploring a range of topics from unusual perspectives: piracy, patriotism, prophecy; global struggles for political and human rights,drivers of war and peace, capitalism, nationalism, socialism, fascism, fundamentalism; communication and culture.
HIST 001 001 | MW1200PM-0100PMCOLLEGE HALL200Fulfills: History & Tradition SectorCross Cultural AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement | Various Audiences

DISCOVER THE MIDDLE AGESADA KUSKOWSKI
This course offers a broad introduction to the history of medieval Europe roughly from the fourth century CE, when Roman civilization faced a series of crises that led to its eventual fall in the West and ushered in the Middle Ages, to the sixteenth century, when European society entered a new early-modern phase. As this is a long period, we will focus on themes that will help us explore some of the most important historical problems related to the period: why was it that a sophisticated and militarily superior Roman empire could fall to "barbarians"? How did political power transform into a feudal model? What did it mean to be a medeival knight? The Middle Ages are known as "an age of faith" but, at the same time, it was an age of questioning that invented the modern university--what roles did faith and knowledge play in the medieval world? It was also a time where many cultures, races and religions came into contact, both at home and in efforts at exploration and conquest. How did medieval culture handle difference, and how did that influence early-modern and even modern approaches? The class will involve a mixture of lecture and discussion, and will include visits to local museum and manuscript collections to provide students first-hand contact with the visual and material culture of medieval Europe.
HIST 145 001 | MW0200PM-0330PMCHEMISTRY BUILDING109Fulfills: Cross Cultural AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement | Various Audiences

THE MANY LIVES OF DATAJAMES BERGMAN
This is a class about the live(s) and afterlives of information from 1850 to the present. Not only can information be reproduced (in a variety of material conditions); it can be repurposed and funneled through a variety of different applications, some of them serving radically different purposes than the first purpose of gathering it. Thoreau's journals of plant flowering, for instance, have become important indicators of climate change. More controversial is the sale of biomedical information by personal genomics services for drug discovery, or the construction of forensic databases consisting of the DNA of suspects arrested as a result of racial profiling. We will study the ways in which data has become a way for us to understand and define change, stability, place, and time, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, a period of accelerated and increasingly systematic gathering of data,particularly medical, forensic, and environmental data. The class will proceed both chronologically and thematically in three units, from the gathering and use of biomedical data as a way to make patient populations "legible" (to borrow from James Scott), to data as a way to make the environment understandable, and finally to data as a tool for producing and reproducing social relations. As a final project, students will trace a particular data set from its original gathering to its latest usage. Students will also have an opportunity to create their own course content in the final three weeks of class.
HSOC 370 401 | TR0300PM-0430PMWILLIAMS HALL28Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

ADAPTATIONS: FROM PAPER TO SCREENALESSANDRA MIRRA
How many of your favorite films are actually literary adaptations? Literature and Film are two different worlds, with their own language and very specific features. These two worlds, though, often intertwine, and numerous films are inspired by literary works or popular narrative fiction – films that do not simply adapt the text to the visual medium, but give birth to a different work of art. What happens in this passage from the text to the screen? What gets lost, what is added, and how are things translated between two very different art forms? What are the theoretical implications of such a “translation”? The course will explore cinematic adaptations of famous literary works made by renowned Italian filmmakers. Case studies include, but are not limited to, Dante’s Comedy (Bertolini, 1911 and Cote-Lapoint, 2014); Boccaccio’s Decameron (Pasolini, 1971 and Taviani 2015); Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (Taviani, 2012); The Gospel according to St. Mattew (Pasolini, 1964); Boito’s Senso(Visconti, 1954); Moravia, The Comformist (Bertolucci, 1970); Tomasi de Lampedusa’s The Leopard (Visconti, 1963). The course will provide students with the necessary critical tools to analyze both verbal and visual texts within the historical and cultural context of their production, as well as an overview of theoretical approaches in adaptation studies.
Please note that the course is a freshman seminar, however, sophomores, juniors, and seniors may contact the Undergraduate Chair in Italian to discuss registration in this course. Freshman seminars may count toward the Italian Studies major/minor.
ITAL 100 401 | MWF0200PM-0300PMFISHER-BENNETT HALL141Fulfills: Sector III: Arts & LettersFreshman SeminarTags: Freshmen Seminars

DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDYKEVIN BROWNLEE
In this course we will read the Inferno, the Purgatorio and the Paradiso, focusing on a series of interrelated problems raised by the poem: authority, fiction, history, politics and language. Particular attention will be given to how the Commedia presents itself as Dante's autobiography, and to how the autobiographical narrative serves as a unifying thread for this supremely rich literary text. Supplementary readings will include Virgil's Aeneid and selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses. All readings and written work will be in English. Italian or Italian Studies credit will require reading Italian texts in their original language and writing about their themes in Italian. This course may be taken for graduate credit, but additional work and meetings with the instructor will be required.
Course fulfills Cross Cultural Analysis. Note that this course is open to various audiences. If you would like this course to count toward the Italian Studies major/minor please contact the Undergraduate Chair in Italian for further details.
ITAL 333 401 | TR0130PM-0300PMWILLIAMS HALL215Fulfills: Sector III: Arts & LettersCross Cultural AnalysisBenjamin Franklin SeminarTags: Benjamin Franklin Seminar | Fulfills a College Requirement

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN LATIN AMERICACATHERINE BARTCH
International Organizations play a powerful role in mitigating conflict at the global level. What role do they play in solving problems related to global politics, economic development, corruption, inequality and civil society in Latin America? How much power, influence and control do they possess in the region? This course examines the role and impact international organizations have had on Latin America since the mid-20th century. After a review of theoretical and methodological persectives on the significance of IOs in international relations, students will examine the workings, issues and often controversies surrounding IOs in Latin America, including the IMF, World Bank, UN, OAS and ICC as wellas regional organizations such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and area trade blocs and agreements of Mercosur, NAFTA and others. Students will also explore the regional impact of transnational civil society organizations, such as human rights organizations and the International Olympic Committee. Students will be invited to participate in the Washington Model OAS from April 10-17.
LALS 208 401 | MW0200PM-0330PMWILLIAMS HALL23Fulfills: Cross Cultural AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement | Various Audiences

Religion and Politics in Latin AmericaJUAN LOMBERA
This course offers an introductory examination of the role that the Catholic Church has played in the defense of human, civil, political, and indigenous rights in Latin America from the time of the Spanish and Portuguese conquests in the 16th century to the end of the 20th century. Throughout this five-century period, the Catholic Church has not acted as a monolithic institution. Some members of the church have been associated with governments and those in power in order to exert control and domination over the population. Others have been among the few individuals or institutions that have spoken up against the injustices and oppression both of colonial governments in the 16th to 18th centuries and of authoritarian regimes of independent republics in the 19th and 20th centuries. In this latter period, our analysis will include the church’s role in promoting democracy from the period of military or civilian dictatorships that ruled a good part of the region starting in the 1960s to the period of transition to democracy in the 1980s and 1990s, a period of intense social change, political struggle, and violence across the region.
LALS 385 601 | MW0630PM-0800PMMCNEIL BUILDING409Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

LATIN@ CULTURAL HISTORY: The Resiliency and Impact of Latin@ Cultural Expressions in the USJOHNNY IRIZARRY
This course takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the resiliency and impact of Latin@ cultural and artistic contributions, esthetics, expressions and institution building int he United Stats from the Civil Rights Era to the present. We will explore how Latin@s arguculturally defining being "American"; how their artistic expressions fit and influence the creativity and productivity of American and global Arts & Cultural expressions; and the Latin@ interactions of race, culture, society, economy and politics in the U.S.
LALS 425 401 | T0530PM-0830PMWILLIAMS HALL23Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

INTRO TO SOCIOLINGMEREDITH TAMMINGA
Human language viewed from a social and historical perspective. Students will acquire the tools of linguistic analysis through interactive computer programs, covering phonetics, phonology and morphology, in English and other languages. These techniques will then be used to trace social differences in the use of language, and changing patterns of social stratification. The course will focus on linguistic changes in progress in American society, in both mainstream and minority communities, and the social problems associated with them. Students will engage in field projects to search for the social correlates of linguistic behavior, and use quantitative methods to analyze the results.
LING 102 001 | MW1100AM-1200PMMOORE BUILDING216Fulfills: Society SectorQuantitative Data AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement | Various Audiences

THE HISTORY OF WORDSBEATRICE SANTORINI
It is sometimes said that every word has its own history. But there are also general factors affecting how words change over time. In this course, we explore both aspects of the history of words. On the one hand, we explore the ways in which the saying is true, by investigating taboo words, euphemisms, shibboleths, doublets, folk etymology, idioms, paradigm gaps, reanalysis, and other word-specific processes. On the other hand, we discuss the general factors, such as regular sound change (notably the Great Vowel Shift), word frequency, and possibly others.
LING 110 001 | MW0200PM-0330PMWILLIAMS HALL301Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

MATH IN AGE OF INFO: Math in the MediaTED CHINBURG
This course counts as a regular elective for both the Mathematics Major and Minor. This is a course about mathematical reasoning and the media. Embedded in many stories one finds in the media are mathematical questions as well as implicit mathematical models for how the world behaves. We will discuss ways to recognize such questions and models, and how to think about them from a mathematical perspective. A key part of the course will be about what constitutes a mathematical proof, and what passes for proof in various media contexts. The course will cover a variety of topics in logic, probability and statistics as well as how these subjects can be used and abused.
FROM THE INSTRUCTOR: This course is about the use of mathematics
to model modern communication. The first part
of the course is about a game theoretic approach to half truths.
Telling the truth, lying and saying something in between
are each strategies which can be analyzed by game theory. This
approach suggests some answers to a famous question of Princeton
philosopher Harry Frankfurt: "Why is there so much bullshit?".
Another course topic concerns the use of systems of differential
equations to understand the interaction of polarized political groups via zombie
epidemic models. A final topic is the use of information theory
and the second law of thermodynamics to understand why the
creation of political chaos is a favored process in the current
media environment. This course has a prerequisite of
math 114. It includes a rigorous introduction to game theory,
linear programming, stability theory for systems of differential
equations and information theory.
MATH 210 301 | TR0300PM-0430PMDAVID RITTENHOUSE LAB4C6Fulfills: Freshman SeminarQuantitative Data AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement | Various Audiences

UNDERGRAD RES IN MATHRYAN HYND
Math 299: Undergraduate research in mathematics
Students will do three short research projects from a large collection of options on topics of current interest in mathematics.
These projects are drawn from many areas of mathematics including dynamical systems, number theory, fluid mechanics,
geometry, optimization and probability. For each project, students will write a report subject to revision and they will also give
an oral presentation on one or two of their projects.
As a class, we will do workshops on how to do research, how to give a presentation and how to write a report. We will typically
meet as a class once per week to hear an oral presentation; on the days that we do not meet as a class, I will meet with students
to hear practice presentations and to give feedback on their projects. So this course will have the feel of a math seminar, with
an emphasis on improving communication skills.
MATH 299 001 | TR0130PM-0300PMDAVID RITTENHOUSE LAB4C4Fulfills: (none) Tags: Principally for Major | Various Audiences

Hearing (in) the Middle AgesMARY CALDWELL
The primary goal of the freshman seminar program is to provide every freshman the opportunity for a direct personal encounter with a faculty member in a small setting devoted to a significant intellectual endeavor. Specific topics will be posted at the beginning of each academic year. Please see the College Freshman seminar website for information on current course offerings http:/www .college.upenn.edu/courses/seminars/freshman.php. Fulfills Arts and Letters sector requirement.
MUSC 016 301 | W0200PM-0500PMVAN PELT LIBRARY452.2Fulfills: Sector III: Arts & LettersFreshman SeminarTags: Freshmen Seminars | Fulfills a College Requirement

VOICING POLITICS/POLITICIZING VOICESMARIA MURPHY
What does it mean to have a voice? To raise your voice? To have your voice heard? What do our voices say about us and what do they fail to communicate? How we speak and how our voices are perceived impact our interactions in daily life, our participation in the political sphere, and our capacity to effect change through activism. This CWiC course explores the parameters by which voice is defined in the context of music and sound studies, social justice, philosophy, and media and communication studies. We will consider how voice embodies our political constitution through an examination of the vocal practices of artists such as Tanya Tagaq, Anohni, Juliana Huxtable, Laurie Anderson, Sikh Knowledge, and Lucas Silveira; the phenomena of voice-activated devices such as Apple s Siri and Amazon s Echo; and the collective voices of movements such as Black Lives Matter and the Standing Rock water protectors. Through individual and group presentations, discussions, and creative projects, this critical speaking seminar encourages students to develop their oral communication skills while examining what informs their individual and collective voices. No previous musical training required. Enrollment limited to 16.
MUSC 048 401 | TR0130PM-0300PMFISHER-BENNETT HALL406Fulfills: Cultural Diversity in the U.S.Tags: Communication Within the Curriculum | Critical Speaker Seminars | Fulfills a College Requirement

TOPICS IN LOGICSCOTT WEINSTEIN
The course focuses on topics drawn from the central areas of mathematical logic: model theory, proof theory, set theory, and computability theory. In Spring Term, 2018, the course will focus on set theory. Topics will include relative consistency of the continuum hypothesis and its negation with respect to ZFC, large cardinals, elements of descriptive set theory, and cardinal characteristics of the continuum, as time permits.
PHIL 412 401 | MWF0200PM-0300PMDAVID RITTENHOUSE LAB4C8Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

CONTEMP AFRICAN POLITICSGUY GROSSMAN
This class provides an introduction to contemporary African politics. The core questions that motivate the course are (i) to what extent are political outcomes in contemporary Africa a consequence of its history, culture and geography? (ii.) Why are state structures and institutions weaker in Africa than elsewhere? (iii.) What accounts for Africa's relatively slow economic growth? (iv.) Why have some African countries been plagued by high levels of political violence while others have not? (v.) What explains the behavior of key African actors: parties or politicians?
PSCI 210 001 | TR0300PM-0430PMSTITELER HALLB21Fulfills: Cross Cultural AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement | Various Audiences

CHINAS DOMESTIC POLITICSYUE HOU
This is an advanced course on the main issues of contemporary Chinese politics, economy and social change. There is a strong focus on teh reform period (post 1978). We will spend considerable time and energy on understanding the major themes and challenges of China's reforms, including the political system, the legal system, the inequality, foreign direct investment, village elections, lawmaking, environmental degradation, social opposition, corruption, and religion. We also investigate the many political and social consequences of reform and changing landscape of Chinese politics. A prior course on Chinese politics (for example, PSCI219) is highly recommended.
PSCI 229 001 | MW0330PM-0500PMMCNEIL BUILDING285Fulfills: Cross Cultural AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement | Various Audiences

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL DEVELOPSARA JAFFEE
This course will cover theory and research related to the development of attachment, emotional regulation, peer and intimate relationships, personality, moral reasoning, and emotional and behavioral disorders. The course will emphasize the degree to which family, peer, and community contexts influence development from infancy into adulthood. Efforts will be made to integrate biological and environmental accounts of development across the lifespan.
PSYC 280 001 | TR1030AM-1200PMFISHER-BENNETT HALL419Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE: FROM THE TOWER OF BABEL TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCEJULIA VERKHOLANTSEV
This is a course in European intellectual history. It explores the historical trajectory, from antiquity to the present day, of the idea that there once was, and again could be, a universal and perfect language among the human race. If recovered, it can explain the origins and meaning of human experience, and can enable universal understanding and world peace. The tantalizing question of the possibility of a universal language have been vital and thought-provoking throughout the history of humanity. The idea that the language spoken by Adam and Eve was a language which perfectly expressed the nature of all earthly objects and concepts has occupied the minds of intellectuals for almost two millennia. In defiance of the Christian biblical myth of the confusion of languages and nations at the Tower of Babel, they have over and over tried to overcome divine punishment and discover the path back to harmonious existence. By recovering or recreating a universal language, theologians hoped to be able to experience the divine; philosophers believed that it would enable apprehension of the laws of nature, while mystic cabbalists saw in it direct access to hidden knowledge. In reconstructing a proto-language, 19th-century Indo-Europeanist philologists saw the means to study the early stages of human development. Even in the 20th century, romantic idealists, such as the inventor of Esperanto Ludwik Zamenhof, strived to construct languages to enable understanding among estranged nations. For writers and poets of all times, from Cyrano de Bergerac to Velimir Khlebnikov, the idea of a universal and perfect language has been an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Today, this idea echoes in theories of universal and generative grammars, in approaching English as a global tongue, and in various attempts to create artificial languages, even a language for cosmic communication. Each week we address a particular period and set of theories to learn about universal language projects, but above all, the course examines fundamental questions of what language is and how it functions in human society.
RUSS 095 401 | MW0330PM-0500PMWILLIAMS HALL3Fulfills: Cross Cultural AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement | Various Audiences

INDIA'S LITERATURE: LOVE, WAR, WISDOM, AND HUMORGREGORY GOULDING
This course introduces students to the extraordinary quality of literary production during the past four millennia of South Asian civilization. We will read texts in translation from all parts of South Asia up to the sixteenth century. We will read selections from hymns, lyric poems, epics, wisdom literature, plays, political works, and religious texts.
SAST 004 401 | MW1000AM-1100AMMCNEIL BUILDING103Fulfills: Arts & Letters SectorCross Cultural AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement

ISLAM AND THE WESTTERENJIT SEVEA
How did Muslims and modern South Asia interact with the West? What Islamic idioms, orientations and movements emerged in the nineteenth and twentienth centuries? Was South Asia a prominent global center of Islam? What kinds of Islamic educational institutions developed in modern South Asia? How did Muslims appropriate technologies? What materials were printed by Muslims? Were Muslims part of the British army? What was jihad in modernity? How did Muslim 'modernists' and 'traditionalists' respond to the challenges of colonialism and modernity? What was the nature of Sufism in modern South Asia? What was the nature of politicalIslam in South Asia? How did some Muslims demand a Muslim State? What was the Partition? How has Muslim history been remembered in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan? This is an introductory course, and aims to introduce students to a facet of the long history of Islam, Muslims, and the West.
SAST 189 401 | MW0200PM-0330PMWILLIAMS HALL306Fulfills: Cross Cultural AnalysisTags: Fulfills a College Requirement

ELEMENTARY SWEDISH IIANNIKA AAHREN
Part two of the elementary level Swedish course. Authentic texts and media will be introduced, as well as opportunities to communicate with native speakers. By the end of the spring semester you will be able to handle a range of practical situations, such as ordering in restaurants and cafes, shopping, talking about family, holidays, plans, daily routines, health, sports/hobbies, jobs and studies. You will work on expressing your opinions and intentions, likes and dislikes, and understanding basic authentic source media, spoken language, etc. You will also learn about Sweden in an international context.
SCND 102 401 | MWF1100AM-1200PMWILLIAMS HALL317Fulfills: Language CourseTags: Various Audiences

SOCIOLOGY OF WORK: Sociology of Work in a Changing WorldROBIN LEIDNER
The material world is shaped and maintained through work, but so is the social world. How work is organized, allocated, and rewarded determines the opportunities people have for developing their own capacities, the kinds of ties they will have with others, and how much control they will have over their own lives. We will consider various sociological perspectives on work and compare alternative ways of organizing work, with a focus on the contemporary United States.
SOCI 117 301 | TR0130PM-0300PMWILLIAMS HALL23Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

SOC. OF MEDIA & POP CULT: Sociology of Media and Popular CultureDAVID GRAZIAN
This course relies on a variety of sociological perspectives to examine the role of media and popular culture in society, with a particular emphasis on the power of the mass media industry, the relationship between cultural consumption and status, and the social organization of leisure activities from sports to shopping.
SOCI 137 001 | MW1100AM-1200PMCLAUDIA COHEN HALL402Fulfills: Society SectorTags: Fulfills a College Requirement | Various Audiences

SCI & RELIG GLOBAL PERSPBEKIR KUCUK
This survey course provides a thematic overview of science and religion from antiquity to the present. We will treat well-known historical episodes, such as the emergence of Muslim theology, the Galileo Affair and Darwinism, but also look beyond them. This course is designed to cover all major faith traditions across the globe as well as non-traditional belief systems such as the New Age movement and modern Atheism
STSC 208 001 | MW1100AM-1200PMCLAUDIA COHEN HALL204Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

WATERS, ROADS AND WIRESANN GREENE
This course studies infrastructures: how and why they develop, how they are maintained, how they reshape environments, and how they interconnect with other infrastructures. We begin by reading about infrastructure and about large technological systems, then explore some specific American structures. Possible topics: the electrical grid, the interstate highway system, hydroelectric dams, Amtrak, urban mass transit systems, disasters and infrastructure (Katrina, Harvey, etc.). As the semester progresses, students will spend more time in class on individual research topics of their choice, and in working groups producing a group project.
STSC 362 301 | TR1200PM-0130PMCLAUDIA COHEN HALL337Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

INTRO LIGHT,SET,COSTUMEERIC BARATTA
Design for theatre (and all of the performing arts) is a dynamic, collaborative process that engages both intellect and emotion in staging the dramatic moment. The personal vision of the designer must navigate the often-uncharted waters of the production process, from the earliest, personal moments of design inspiration to the opening night performance. Design flows from creativity, is structured by research and theory, and is realized in living form by collaboration in the dynamic process of theatre-making. This class will integrate history, theory and practice of stage design in the interactive setting of the Collaborative Classroom in Van Pelt Library in this special interdisciplinary, active-learning course offering open to all Penn students. Group and individual projects, field visits, practical projects and guest speakers will be featured in this newly-revised course.
THAR 130 301 | F0200PM-0500PMVAN PELT LIBRARY113Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

PHILANTHROPY & THE CITYDOUGLAS BAUER GREG GOLDMAN
This course will focus on how urban communities are shaped by the nonprofit sector and the billions of philanthropic dollars that fuel their work. By bridging theory and practice, the class explores what dynamics are at play to deliver vital services or programs in healthcare, education, the arts, community development, and other issues. The course will also focus on these important questions: (1) Whose responsibility is the public good? How is that responsibility shared by the public, private, and nonprofit sectors? and (2) Given that responsibility for the public good, which individuals and groups make the decisions about how to serve the public good? How are these decisions made, and who benefits from these decisions? Students will consider these questions in an interdisciplinary context that will bring a historical and philosophical perspective to the examination of the values and institutions that characterize the contemporary philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.
URBS 404 401 | R0530PM-0830PMMCNEIL BUILDING169Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

Urban Ethnography: Capturing the Cultures of CitiesJOAN SAVERINO
Cities can be exciting, dense, noisy, and dirty. They are places where the unexpected is expected to occur. One thing is certain however - urban settings are always full of the diversity of human expressivity. Through readings, videos, guest lectures, and field trips, this course explores the symbolic meanings and social production of urban life and culture in Philadelphia, the nation's sixth largest city. The urban landscape provides an intensification of cultural processes. How humans experience them are more easily studied and understood in an urban setting, giving this class the opportunity to explore social relational and cultural themes such as the ethnic city, the contested city, the global city, and the creative city. This course is structured as a seminar with readings from Philadelphia and other urban settings that introduce students to the study of the city as a site of everyday practice. In addition, the course offers step-by-step training in conducting an ethnographic fieldwork project on an urban topic of the student's interest.
URBS 427 601 | W0530PM-0830PMMCNEIL BUILDING110Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences

THEORIES OF COLOR: IDEAS AND CONTEXTTAWRIN BAKER
In this course we will investigate ideas about color, along with color practices, from antiquity to the nineteenth century. Our survey will follow three intertwined threads. We will examine physical color theories: what various thinkers believed color was insofar as it exists in the things we see, together with how color was related to light. We will study the anatomy and physiology of the eye, especially the way in which ideas about the body, the eye, and the mind shaped, and were shaped by, ideas about color. And we will trace how people in the past have struggled to bring color under control, including the history of alchemy, early chemistry, dyeing, and printing.
VLST 215 401 | MW0200PM-0330PMJAFFE BUILDING113Fulfills: (none) Tags: Various Audiences